


A tribute: Anger

by Pariwhoop



Series: Tribute [2]
Category: Bleach, Bleach Anime, bleach manga
Genre: Bleach - Freeform, Bleach end, Gen, Not Canon Compliant - Bleach Chapter 686 - Death & Strawberry, Post-Winter War (Bleach), bleach ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-16 16:17:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16498862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pariwhoop/pseuds/Pariwhoop
Summary: His name was Hirako Shinji.People always thought he took things lightly- that they rolled off of him like water over a rock. They thought he was carefree and happy and not even a bit angry.They were wrong.Give me Hirako Shinji making peace with the darkness in his soul, and looking at his friends and feeling happy, that they had made their peace in the city of soul cutters.





	A tribute: Anger

His name was Hirako Shinji.  
People always thought he took things lightly- that they rolled off of him like water over a rock. They thought he was carefree and happy and not even a bit angry.

They were wrong.

There was always a burning weight behind his sternum, always there was a pull on his soul, angry, indomitable, unquenchable, his hollow half trying to eat his soul up and chew on his reiatsu. And it pissed him off.  
He didn't show it, of course.  
He never let things show.

His name was Hirako Shinji and we haven't been told a single thing about the dark one who lives inside him.  
Tell me Hirako Shinji was angry. Tell me he saw once Aizen, saw through the warm exteriors to the cold son of a bitch's heart below and tell me he understood, because some days, Shinji wanted to burn the world down.

Tell me more about Shinji than that he had once, a hundred and ten years ago, had long hair, and an unlikely friendship with a tiny vice captain.  
Tell me how he became friends with Hiyori Sarugaki. Maybe they were orphans together, at the institute and clung to each other even as it became obvious that Shinji was a genius. That he would definitely one day make captain. Tell me how he took care of Hiyori. Show me how he cared for each of his messy friends, with demons inside and the world against them for no other reason that they had been messily betrayed.

Tell me about Hirako Shinji noticing Aizen Sousuke in his division. Show me Shinji, watching this young man who held back against his opponents- the apparently perfect young man who was a genius but not too much, the young man with the empty smile and the eyes that others called warm, but he could only see cold, snake eyes.

Remind us all how he met Urahara Kisuke. Show me the Captain who remembered what it was like, to be given command of a division and be afraid of not measuring up. Tell me Hirako Shinji, or rather show me Hirako Shinji realising the value of the lives with which he had been entrusted. Show me an old captain and a young one sitting under the stars and remind us of the weight of the unlikely wisdom that hides behind that perpetual smile.

Remind us of the Captain and the Shinigami who was turned upon by those he called friend, by those he had trusted, and show me him realising that he had not been smart enough, he had not stopped Aizen, he had not managed to keep Aizen from hurting his friends.  
Tell me that Hirako Shinji felt so very guilty each time he looked at his friends.  
Each time he looked at tired Urahara and tired Yoruichi, each time he glanced at struggling Hiyori and Lisa and Kensei, tell me he felt anger because he had not been smart enough or strong enough to save his friends.  
Tell me that he could barely leash that anger. That for a few months in the training ring his Hollow overtook him and show me his darkness. Don't just show me his smile.  
Show me that he was able to leash his anger inside, until he saw his friend, broken and bleeding once more at the hands of a man he should have been able to stop and show me that his anger was right. That it survived. That he did not just wake up from a hundred year sleep; that he was angry all along but managed to control it.

One thing is for sure: at first Ichigo was just an oppurtunity. Thanks for at least showing us how Ichigo grew on Shinji and his Visoreds. On everyone.

But also, tell me about that night when Shinji felt he had reigned his anger in enough that he could talk to Urahara and not feel like clawing his heart out for what he had done to his friend, to all his friends, ripping them from their bone white city of spring cherry blossoms and tea, of the Shinigami, from home. Tell me how they laughed, together, for the first time in years, reminiscing about that old captain and this young captain once more sitting under the stars.

Tell me what happened after he went back to Soul Society, tell me how he became friends with Momo, that they healed each other's scars: One, the once captain of Aizen Sousuke, and the other, his once subordinate. Show me how they built up mutual respect, both for each other, and for themselves. Tell me Captain Hirako Shinji looked at Momo and saw not a weak girl; but the girl that had dragged herself upto the rank of Vice Captain, step by bloody step.  
Tell me they saw the strength in one another.

Tell me about the demon that lived inside Captain Hirako Shinji; tell me about the man that he was and tell me he was saved, later, from his anger.  
Maybe it was a girl who did it for him. Maybe it was a boy.

Or maybe, one day, simply watching the cherry blossoms drift down to the ground in the Seireitei, Aizen Sousuke far, far below the ground in a dark place, imprisoned, he remembered that he no longer felt that burning behind his sternum.   
That he was back. He had come home.  
That they had all come home.


End file.
